Maryam Namazie | |
|---|---|
 Namazie on a 2021 discussion panel inDe Balie in Amsterdam | |
| Born | May 1966 (1966-05) (age 59) |
| Occupation | Human rights activist |
| Organization | Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain |
Maryam Namazie (Persian:مریم نمازی; born 1966)[1] is aBritish-Iraniansecularist,communist andhuman rights activist, commentator, and broadcaster.[2] She is the Spokesperson for Fitnah – Movement for Women’s Liberation, One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. She is known for speaking out against Islam and Islamism and defending the right to apostasy and blasphemy.
Namazie was born inTehran to Hushang and Mary Namazie, but left with her family in 1980 after the 1979revolution in Iran.[3][4] She has subsequently lived inIndia, theUnited Kingdom, and theUnited States, where she began her university at the age of 17.[5]
Most of her early work focused on refugee rights, especially in Sudan, Turkey, and Iran,[5] and she has actively campaigned againstsharia law.[6] Namazie became well known in the mid-2000s for her pro-secularism positions and her critique of the treatment of women under Islamic regimes.[2] In 2015, her lectures were opposed by groups labeling her as too provocative.[7][8]
Namazie first worked withEthiopian refugees inSudan. After a1989 military coup when Islamic law was instituted in Sudan, her clandestine organisation in defence ofhuman rights, Human Rights Without Frontiers, was discovered and she was threatened by Sudanese security and had to leave the country. Back in the United States in 1990 she became the Founder of the Committee for Humanitarian Assistance to Iranian Refugees (CHAIR). In 1994 she worked with Iranian refugees inTurkey and produced a film about their situation. Namazie was then elected Executive Director of the InternationalFederation of Iranian Refugees with branches in more than twenty countries. She has led several campaigns, especially against human rights violations of refugees in Turkey.[5][self-published source?] He has also broadcast programmes via satellite television in English: TV International.[9]
Namazie has had campaigned forsecularism, and had criticized Islam in Iran and internationally including inCanada and Britain, where she currently lives. In numerous articles and public statements she has challengedcultural relativism andpolitical Islam. These activities were recognised by theNational Secular Society with the 2005Secularist of the Year award, making her its first recipient.[10]
During theDanish cartoon riots, she was one of the twelve signatories ofManifesto: Together Facing the New Totalitarianism together withAyaan Hirsi Ali,Chahla Chafiq,Caroline Fourest,Bernard-Henri Lévy,Irshad Manji,Mehdi Mozaffari,Taslima Nasreen,Salman Rushdie,Antoine Sfeir,Philippe Val, andIbn Warraq. The manifesto begins thus: "After having overcomefascism,Nazism, andStalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism."[11] Namazie said in a 2006 interview that the response by the public "has been overwhelming. Many feel such a manifesto is extremely timely whilst of course there is the usualhate mail from Islamists."[12]
Namazie believes Britain should ban theniqab,[13][14] and women under 18 should be banned from wearing thehijab.[15][16]
Maryam Namazie was also the spokesman ofFitnah- Movement for Women's Liberation, a protest movement which is, according to their website, "demanding freedom, equality, and secularism and calling for an end to misogynist cultural, religious, and moral laws and customs, compulsory veiling, sex apartheid, sex trafficking, and violence against women."[17] Namazie says that the name of the movement "fitna", is in defiance of the Islamic prophetMuhammad who, Namazie says, portrays women as a source of harm and affliction in ahadith. She explains that even though the term is generally perceived as negative, the fact that women who are calledfitnah are those who "are disobedient, who transgress the norms, who refuse, who resist, who revolt, who won't submit" makes it suited for awomen's liberation movement.[18] She has explained that the creation of the movement was sparked by contemporary movements and revolutions around the world, especiallythose in the Middle East and North Africa, although she emphasizesFitnah has global relevance.[18]
Namazie has denounced the discrimination women have to endure under the Islamic regime: "From the very fact that you are a second-class citizen, even your testimony legally is worth half that of a man's, you get half what a boy does in inheritance if you are a girl. You have to be veiled if you're a girl or a woman, and there are certain fields of education or work that are closed to you because you're considered emotional."[18] She compares women's situation under Islamic regimes today to the social inequalities underapartheid in South Africa, and she cites as examples the existence of separate entrances for women into government offices and the separation of men and women on swimming areas in theCaspian Sea by a curtain.[18]
AfterMina Ahadi launched theCentral Council of Ex-Muslims in Germany in January 2007, Namazie became the co-founder of theCouncil of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) in June, and was involved in the founding of the Dutch branch in September: theCentral Committee for Ex-Muslims, an initiative ofEhsan Jami. The representatives of the three ex-Muslim councils signed a "European Declaration of Tolerance".[19][20] The rise of ex-Muslim organisations have been described byMEPSophie in 't Veld as a "newRenaissance"; Namazie herself compared the breaking of taboos and the 'coming out' ofMuslim apostates with theemancipation of homosexuals.[21]
In February 2008, Namazie and Ahadi were selected among of the top 45 "Women of the Year 2007" byElle Quebec for their role in the foundation of the ex-Muslim councils.[2][22] Though the Dutch Committee for Ex-Muslims was dissolved in 2008, its British and German counterparts were reinforced with a French branch: by the initiative ofWaleed Al-Husseini the Council of Ex-Muslims of France was founded on 6 July 2013, in which Namazie was again involved.[23][24]
Namazie was named inVictims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within Europe's Muslim Communities, a late 2008 report about 27 European public figures with an Islamic background that have been made the focus ofterrorist attention on the basis of what they have said about issues such Islam,homosexuality or religious experience.[25]
Since 1982, there has been anIslamic Sharia Council in the United Kingdom, and Islamic sharia courts are allowed to adjudicate in familial matters (marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody of children) according to theArbitration Act 1996. Namazie campaigns against these issues under the nameOne law for all.[6] She deems sharia law is discriminatory and unjust, especially against women and children: "Rights and justice are meant for people, not for religions and cultures", said Namazie. The action was launched on 10 December 2008 during the 60th anniversary of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights.[26][27]
Namazie has also spoken againstcultural relativism in regards to human rights and equality, denouncing the fact that cultural relativism disregards violations of human rights and the oppression of women in countries ruled by Islamists, under the excuse that these actions are part of the culture of the countries where they occur.[28] She has also pointed out that she believes the greatest opponents of sharia law and Islamism are precisely people who have lived under its rule, and that no one should have lesser rights for having been born in the place where they were born.[18]
On 15 September 2010, Namazie, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published inThe Guardian, stating their opposition toPope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[29]
Namazie was keynote speaker at the World Atheist Convention 2011 inDublin, where she stated that there is currently an "IslamicInquisition" going on; that labeling people and countries as being first and foremost 'Islamic' or 'Muslim' denies the diversity of individuals and societies and gives Islamists more influence; that human rights are not 'Western' but universal; and that the word "Islamophobia" is wrong because it is not a form ofracism, because fear of Islam and opposition against it is not unfounded, but even necessary.[30] A similar speech she made inSalt Lake City at the 2014 American Atheists National Convention opposed the wearing of the veil.[31]
After the gesture of the Egyptian bloggerAliaa Magda Elmahdy, who posted nude pictures of herself to provoke the Islamists, Namazie launched a calendar with pictures of naked female activists in February 2012, with among others the Ukrainian Alena Magela of theFEMEN group.[32] Namazie said: ""Islamists and the religious right are obsessed with women's bodies. They want to silence us, to make us go veiled and chained through life. Nudity breaks taboos, and is an important means of resistance."[33] She called Elmahdy's deed "a scream against Islamism" and "the ultimate act of rebellion".[34] Namazie emphasizes the difference between Muslims on the one hand, believers like any other, and Islamists on the other, who are dangerous because they form repressive political movements that have seized power in some countries. She argues that all religious Right movements are the same fundamentally.[30][35]
In September 2015, the students' union ofWarwick University briefly banned her from a forthcoming talk on campus organised by the Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists' Society because of a fear that she might "incite hatred" of the university's Muslim students. In an interview with theCoventry Telegraph'sSimon Gilbert, she was quoted as saying: "It angers me that we're all put in a little box and that anyone who criticises Islam is labelled racist. It's not racist, it's a fundamental right. ... The Islamic movement is a movement that slaughters people in the Middle East and Africa. It's important for us to speak about it and criticise it."[7][8] The ban was lifted after a few days.[36]
In December 2015, she gave a talk about blasphemy at theGoldsmiths University in London, sponsored by the university'sAtheist, Secularist and Humanist society. During her talk, members of the university's Islamic Society caused a disruption by heckling and switching off herPowerPoint presentation when Namazie displayed a cartoon from the seriesJesus and Mo. Some of the students were alleged to have issued threats.[37] In response to the incident, the university's Feminist Society released a statement onTumblr, expressing support for the Islamic Society, and condemning the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society for hosting "known Islamophobes" to speak at the university.[38]
Namazie is the spokesperson for One Law for All and theCouncil of Ex-Muslims of Britain.[5][39] Namazie is an honorary associate of theNational Secular Society,[40][5] and a patron ofPink Triangle Trust.[5] She is also involved with the International Committee againstStoning.[41] In the past she used to be spokesperson for Iran Solidarity,[2] and for Equal Rights Now - Organisation Against Women's Discrimination in Iran, that seeks to defend women's rights and the struggle against "sexual apartheid" in Iran.[42]
Maryam Namazie used to be a Central Committee member of theWorker-communist Party of Iran, as editor for theWorker-communist Review. She advocated ideas inspired by worker-communism, especially those of the Iranian theoristMansoor Hekmat.[43] Maryam Namazie and Fariborz Pooya resigned from membership of the Worker-communist Party of Iran on 1 January 2009. Central Committee secretary Hamid Taqvaie regretfully accepted their resignation, saying the party would 'continue to support [their] social activities and campaigns against political Islam', and expressed hope that Namazie and Pooya would continue to work on theBread and Roses programme.[44]
Namazie strongly distances herself fromfar-right anti-Islamic groups, whom she does not regard as allies, but enemies as well.[30][45][46] At the World Atheist Conference in Dublin in 2011, referring to the far-right, she said "they are like the Islamists" and that Muslims need equal protection under the law, while she stressed the need to be able to criticize religion.[30] She strongly condemned the far-right movements afterthe terrorist attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which took away 50 victims' lives, stating that "We stand with Muslims everywhere who face discrimination, violence and terror".[47]
Namazie is featured in the following documentary films:
| International | |
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| National | |
